Make Room For Business At Home

Once upon a time it made sense to divide cities into separate zones for living, working, shopping and playing. To some extent it still does.

Nobody wants a car body shop in the middle of a residential block. Nor do heavy manufacturers want residences so close that inhabitants can't help but complain of smell and smoke.

But the nature of work has changed drastically in the 38 years since the authors of Chicago's zoning ordinance carved up the city into neat little districts titled R (residential), C (commercial) and M (manufacturing.)

The microchip revolution, the advent of the information-based economy, the downsizing of large corporations and the flowering of small enterprise-all have worked to blur the distinction between residence and workplace. An estimated 280,000 Chicago-area residents now do business out of their homes, with workplaces ranging from computer-modem-fax setups on dining room tables to basement cosmetics dealerships.

This is a problem in Chicago, where all home-based businesses are technically in violation of the outmoded zoning ordinance. Mass evasion of the law is not a healthy thing, which is one reason the Daley adminstration has empaneled a task force to propose regulatory changes. Its first draft shows, however, how difficult it can be to define and regulate the modern gamut of live/work arrangements.

Why should home work areas be limited, as the task force proposes, to less than 10 percent of a dwelling's floor space? Or deliveries to weekdays, if, say, the "delivery" consists of an envelope full of spread-sheets or a floppy disk? And why hit tiny cottage ventures with the same $125 city license fee charged the big businesses in the Loop?

The problem, of course, is that home-based enterprises come in all shapes and sizes-some as inconspicuous as desktop publishing and others as big a nuisance as the aforementioned back-alley body shop.

Some things, such as commercial signery or outdoor storage of materials-have no place in a residential area. Others, such as periodic deliveries or customer visits, can be tolerated in moderation.

Evanston, for instance, winks at small (less than 400 square feet) offices-in-the-home and exempts them from license fees. But larger operations must pay a $25 annual fee and observe limits on non-resident employees (two maximum) and client visits (12 a day).

The trick is to preserve a modicum of residential tranquility without stifling the job- and tax-producing benefits of home-grown enterprise.